In a nutshell the mobile telephone provider uses a SMS gateway to receive the email then send it to the desired phone as a SMS message. Now days automated messages are quite common i.e weather or Amanda alerts as well as waiting lines at restaurants and vehicle registration offices (at least in the US).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_gateway

@michaelk & scasey....that is exaclt what I tried but it didn't work
@ AwesomeMachine....... It is not sent by cellular modem, it through the netwotk at the workplace.

How exactly do you do this on Windows? Do you use an existing Outlook account or somwething else? Can you send an email to any email addresses with Linux? When you send to an email address other that the SMS gateway from PowerShell what email address is shown as the sender and do you have that set up on the Linux machinery?

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I do this in Windows running a PS cmdlet. I am sending to an existing Outlook account and yes I can send emails to any email address using Linux. I already have emails being sent in Linux just fine. I never really notice what email is shown as the sender.

Perhaps I'm being a bit slow here but I still don't understand what exactly you are saying fails.
I asked what I did because, as I understand it, you are trying to send email from your PC to an SMTP server with the address of an email-to-text gateway and a text is not being sent. So, you should understand how important it is to know what credentials you are sending the SMTP server in Windows and Linux and whether there is a difference?
If I am wrong here please explain the exact process by which you are expecting the text message to be generated?
Sorry, I know I am being rude but I'm seeing a lot of "this doesn't work" but not much explanation of how you think it should work.

@273.....I don't think you are being rude, you just want to help an I appreciate it!

I am using this line of code:

echo "enter message body here" | mailx -s "email subject" recipient@email.com mobilenumber@vtext.com

in a BASH script. Taking out "mobilenumber@vtext.com", sending to the email works just fine. I would like to send to a mobile number instead so it would just pop up on my cell with me having to log into the phone then search for the email. I hope I am explaining myself clearly

It looks like your SMTP server can't communicate with the gateway. Do you know which SMTP server you are using? Is this inside a corporate network you didn't set up the exchange servers on?

Are you using your complete 10 digit phone number i.e including the area code?

Have you tried sending a text message using a regular email client versus the command line?

Have you tried just the single mobilenumber@vtext.com on the command line instead of two recipients?

If it is a workplace issue have you tried outside your workplace (with an email client)?

Some "is it plugged in" questions:
Is 'mobilenumber' a 10-digit number, no spaces or dashes?
Does the mail get to 'recipient@email.com' when that line of code is executed? If not, try using a comma instead of a space to separate the email addresses. The space worked on my server, but generally speaking, lists of email addresses should be comma seperated.
As 273 asked, can you ping/traceroute to vtext.com from your mail server?
Do you get any error or BOUNCE messages back? They should go to the sending user's email.

Do you have a GUI email application on that computer? Thunderbird or Evolution? What happens if you send to mobilenumber@vtext.com from the GUI? (BOUNCEes might be more obvious)

[michaelk: Great Minds...]

@273...yes it is in the corporate environment and I am using the same SMTP server used in other working scripts.
@michaelk... yes I am using the full phone number with area code, no dashes. I tried using Outlook to send an SMS and it does work. I tried using just the number on the command line and it didn't work.
@scasey....Yes mobile number is 10 digits, no spaces or dashes. The email does get to the recipient email when executed. I don't understand what you mean by this:

As 273 asked, can you ping/traceroute to vtext.com from your mail server? If you mean typing in command prompt "ping mobilenumber@vtext.com" I tried it, got an error "Ping request could no find host MOBILENUMBER"

I used a GUI email application (Outlook) and it works to an email and to a mobile number.

Obviously, there is something that Powershell is sending to the outlook server versus mail.

The ping command would be one pings a domain, not an email address.

Did you try either:
1) mailx to the mobile number address only? or
2) separating the email addresses with a comma?

Outlook is likely (probably) not using the same email server as mailx. mailx would use sendmail or some other MTA on the server itself. Outlook in a corporate environment is probably using a MS mail server. Is your 'recipient@email.com' also outside your corporate network? If not, try an email address that is and see if that works.

What does your ~/.mailrc contain? That's where mailx is going to get information about the mail server.

@scasey.... I tried pinging "vtext.com" with 100% loss, request timed out. I tried 1 & 2 with no progress. I tried using email inside and outside the corporate network with no progress. Sending to an email outside the network I haven't received an email yet but remember, sending the emails is not the problem, I'm trying to send a SMS to a phone,

Sending the emails is the problem or, at least, you have not proven it is not.
Your problem seems to be that email sent from your Linux install to a specific address either fail or are in a format that it does not accept.
I am wondering what credentials you present to the exchange server and what credentials iot presents to the text gateway -- surely this isn't an open relay that anyone can email and send a text for free?

I'm thinking Im sending both the same